1/ The object is created within a ZAP mandate Universiteit Hasselt. 2/ The object 'Edge of Chaos II' is a further development within the research towards the expressive potential of traditional techniques and media, more specific the contemporary relevance of granulation, considered one of the most magical ornamental techniques in the history of goldsmithing. (cf. doctoral thesis 'Huycke, D., 2010, The Metamorphic Ornament: Re-Thinking Granulation. Een onderzoek naar de transformatiemogelijkheden van granulatie naar sculpturaal zilverwerk. Doctoraat in de Beeldende Kunst, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Universiteit Hasselt, 2005-2010 (defense 24/09/2010, Z33 Hasselt)) Abstract: Rather than the actual technique of granulation itself, which is the starting point and source of inspiration, the main content of research is the process of transformation, whereby techniques and concepts from one discipline, the art of goldsmithing are implemented in another discipline, sculptural silversmithing. Since the moment of its conception granulation has been found in jewelry as a surface application and has rarely been used for structural purposes. From this knowledge the first point of departure emerged, which explores the possibilities of structural granulation in sculptural silverwork. From this perspective the granule - the original ornament - loses its primary, decorative function of pure visual pleasure and shifts into the essential building material of the object. Granulation becomes the texture, the structure as well as the architectural support of the work. Alongside this rather technical inquiry, a second, more conceptual starting point arose in which the expressive potential of granulation was explored. In this context granulation evolves from a decorative or constructive technique into subject matter and concept, reaching beyond the technical applications of the process towards a more poetic dimension.

Description:

'Edge of Chaos II' is a sculptural object build up with silver granules. Granulation is in this object not used as a decorative technique, instead the granules are used to build the object. 'Edge of Chaos' is a bowl shaped object and is build up in a hemispherical concave mould. When the granules are thrown into the mould they automatically roll towards the deepest possible point in the mould and follow the surface of the inside of the mould. The spheres automatically fill every empty space arranging them into a certain dense and regular order. This is a kind of self-organization, a process in which the internal organization of a system increases in complexity without being guided or managed by an outside power. This is also what appears in the ordering structures in a lot of plants, such as in the core of sunflowers. The American theoretic biologist and researcher in complex systems, Stuart Kauffman, speaks in this context about ‘order for free’. This free order, the ability that spheres have to order themselves is also one of the reasons why throughout the history of the art of granulation you discover always the same patterns, based on the honeycomb pattern. These patterns are therefore not necessarily a signature of time or space, what ornament very often is, but the result of this self-organizing capacity of spheres. Compared to traditional granulation the mould takes here the function of the base material and the gravity takes over of the glue. Upon the layer that give the object 'Edge of Chaos' the outer shape, several other layers of granules are fused, using chaotic configurations in contrast with the nicely ordered outside layer. The tension between order and chaos culminates on the edge of the bowl where the orderly outside goes over in a chaotic inside.